Photoblog: Valley of Fire

Rainbow Vista in the Valley of Fire.

The Valley of Fire was the main reason I was excited about going to Las Vegas. (I know. I'm lame. But I don't gamble, I barely drink, spas bore me, and American Coke tastes weirdly different — it's the high-fructose corn syrup — so it's not that surprising. Which is not to say that everyone who enjoys Vegas should be an alcoholic, caffeine- and gambling addict with a penchant for massages, although I'm sure it would help.)

It really is spectacularly beautiful, though. (Speaking of which — you'll want to click on the picture above and see it in its original size in Flickr. Trust me.)


The long and winding road into the park




The trail known as the Mouse's Tank


Mouse's Tank is also known for its Anasazi petroglyphs.








We entered the park via the Valley of Fire highway off of I-15, drove through the park, and exited on Northshore Road (the so-called scenic route) to head back to Vegas. It turned out, though, that the road was being re-asphalted, a section at a time, so we had to wait for a pilot car to guide us through, which we found amusing.


My Docs, which used to be black, but now ... aren't. A souvenir, I suppose.

Photoblog: Hoover Dam

Looking downstream from the dam

I had all these intentions of writing a travelogue for Las Vegas — and, in fact, I've started one — but honestly, the photographs are better and there's not much to say, anyhow, at least about Hoover Dam. We parked on the Arizona side, we walked across the dam, we looked down, we walked back. It was horrendously hot. (We had this thing in Vegas, where not only did we manage to visit during the hottest days of summer, in a drought year, but whenever we had to actually be in the baking sun, we would choose to do it right around high noon. We do things with conviction around here.)


They don't like the Black Spy at the dam. Presumably the White Spy is acceptable.


The entire structure is done in the Art Deco style from the 1930s, even the much more modern parking lot-gift shop-restrooms complex.






Lake Mead, on the other side of the dam. You can see the high water mark — someone told us that Lake Mead has lost 150 feet of depth in the last 10 years


Lake Mead from a lookout close to the dam (on the Nevada side). They have apparently moved the marina three times in the last 10 years.
We got the D90 literally two days before we left for Las Vegas, so this was the first time out for the camera. The verdict: the camera is everything we'd hoped for and more, but the tool is only as good as its wielder and it turns out that this wielder could not find a straight horizon line with two hands and a map.

In other news: the straightening tool in iPhoto is not only fabulous, but also my BFF. Digital darkrooms forever!

pictures from a vacation

We're back from Vegas. We took the red-eye, which leaves Vegas at 11:30 pm, and lands in Toronto at 6:30 (technically 6:45, but our flight was early) in the morning — which, not incidentally, is 3:30 Vegas time. About the only good things about the red-eye are that it's reasonably easy to sleep (albeit not well), because of the dark; we also got the chance to see a visiting friend who was leaving Toronto the same day, and we actually got to watch the morning fog burn off the downtown skyscrapers as we were being driven home; that was fun.

Otherwise, it really has no redeeming qualities whatsoever.

I will most likely to do a travlogue or a photoblog or something, but until then, here's a quick summary of our trip:


Hoover Dam, looking south. The new bridge is supposedly opening this week.


Vegas sunrise outside our window, before our way-too-early-in-the-morning trip to the Valley of Fire.


Valley of Fire.


The kitchen (and the view from our countertop seats) at L'Atelier de Joel Robuchon, our first meal in a Michelin-starred restaurant. The food, needless to say, was fabulous.


How do you follow up a Michelin-star dinner? By having brunch in a Thomas Keller restaurant: Bouchon, inside the Venetian.


A slightly blurry sign for LOVE, Cirque du Soleil's tribute to the Beatles. Slightly blurry is appropriate, as we missed the first 15 minutes of the show after I semi-collapsed from heatstroke in front of the Venetian. Good times. No, really — the show is fabulous.


Balloons inside the Bellagio. This has nothing to do with anything, except for the fact that I love balloons.


Pd's amazing photograph of the Luxor, taken outside our hotel with an improvised tripod and an 8-second exposure.